Masteries

Offense:
0

Defense:
21

Utility:
9

Introduction

Alright SO Maokai A new champion added this week hes a utility/support/tank hes a strong champion from early to late game if you play him properly with the right builds and ideas and that's what I'm here to help you with.

Please Try the build before voting

Pros / Cons

Pros
Great harass damage
Has roots and a knock back
Ult that can change team fights
can easily get FB with saplingsCan harass players turret hugging
Can Deny XP to solo lane
Ult that reduces damage taken by 20%

Cons
Requires COMMON SENSE
Requires experience to play efficiently
Is very team basedRequires at least 1 other champion to be fully effectiveCAN NOT SOLO LANE...EVER
Ult that deals damage based on damage absorbed

Team Work

Maokai is a VERY TEAM BASED Champion DO NOT EVER SUGGEST TO SOLO LANE OR GO MID your not made for it you want to ideally lane with a range like Caitlyn or Ashe or a caster like Malzhar Ryze Veigar or Lux

If you don't have a range on your team to lane with for some strange reason try to lane with someone able to stun disable or taunt if they can add that onto the end of your root or you can root after there taunt/stun you can kill most players before they have a chance to run away early to mid game

Now then most importantly we talk about your roll in team fights YOU ARE THE TANK remember this you want to be in the front keeping your team safe or being the one to engage you do not want to be back in your team line with the squishy players if you have another tank like blitz or Shen hold close to there side and stay slightly behind them you will pick up the role of off tank or support tank

In team fights DO NOT BE AFRAID TO USE YOUR ULT it has a very short CD and you should take advantage of it since it reduces damage taken by anything other then a turret by 20% Make sure you think about how you use it before you cast it it can be used aggressively or defensively for defensive place it on your team as you engage to reduce the damage they take (it most likely wont hit any champions this way but it can save your entire team and change the tide of a battle immediately) To place it aggressively place it near the mid/back line of your enemy when you engage you want to stay in the circle so don't put it to far back but you want to make sure you use it to pick up runners when they try to get away

Runes and reasoning

For runes I take greater mark of insight Greater seal of clarity greater glyphs of shielding and finally greater quintessences of vitality

Greater mark of Insight (magic pen) your a caster you need these take them get them use them

Greater Seal of Clarity (MP5 based on char level) YOU NEED THESE these are not optional you must have all 9 of these for this build or else you will find yourself oom in extremely mana heavy situations

Greater glyphs of shielding (magic res based on char level) These are not necessarily required but there extremely useful against caster heavy teams even a small amount of magic res helps and anything you can get here is useful

Greater quintessence of vitality (health based on char lvl) i picked these out of personal preference it gets your base health just over 2k from 1.8k just like magic res doesn't seem like much until your in a game without it

Masteries

This is a tank build and since hes a tank/support here i like to go 0/21/9 the 9 in utility helps out with - re spawn time bonus exp gain which can help if your getting denied XP and finally your clarity is buffed to help your entire team which can change the outcome of team fights immediately just like your ULT

Items

Alright now Doran's ring to start ALWAYS no matter what every time it gives you health and mana Regen that you will need for most of the remainder of the game

Mercury's treads are not really optional on maokai your vulnerable to stun and it adds decent magic resist so get them immediately after Catalyst

Rod of ages YOU WANT THIS ASAP to get the full bonus from it it adds AP health and mana that you will be needing at the start of the game

Warmongers before Scepter your going to want to get the bonus from this maxed out and it will completely change your survivability alone and in team fights

follow up with scepter for the hp + ability power and the slow off your saplings makes it harder for them to dodge the explosion from it after it initially hits them

From there move onto frozen heart or force of nature depending of if there AP or AD heavy AD go frozen heart AP go force of nature either way you want to get both up because the force of nature health regen helps once you get to that 4.4k health mark

Skill Sequence

DO NOT CHANGE THIS SAPLINGS ARE YOUR DAMAGE AND GOLD FARMING Twisted Advance is your root and single target damageand in all honesty arcane smash is very situational and is really just a minor addition to your burst damage

Farming

Saplings are your friend after level 7 you should start being able to kill all 3 casters with 1 sapling or 1 sapling and arcane smash to finish em off from this point on your going to want to be using your saplings on every caster group that comes out for the easy 1 skill kill gold

Things like jungle are really not ideal for maokai at all with this buildbut after level 10 you should be able to solo blue and kill red not that it really helps you

Final Notes

This build is made to be a tank for ranked and non ranked games with the ability to keep your team alive while at the same time doing damage i know that there are other ways that i could of bolstered up his defense or given him more AP but it just doesn't mix as well as this does for my exact play style

Remember this is just the way i play Maokai it's just a suggestion I'm not saying this is the best way to play him or anything this is just my personal preference that has worked out well for me in ranked